This morning, FC Barcelona finally activated their 2nd economic lever. That is the sale of 15% of their television rights to the investment company Sixth Street. This will allow the club to add €400 million into their accounts. The deal will run for the next 25 years. However, Barcelona will have the option to buy-back the rights.
The Blaugrana agreed in June to sell 10% for €207.5 million – worth €267 million on the books, a move which let them finish the 2021-22 season in the positive.
These movements will allow the club to move to La Liga’s one-to-one ratio rather than 4-1, which they were on when it comes to registering players.
Negotiations to activate the second lever were more complicated than those for the first. The reason is that when Barcelona managed deal with Goldman Sachs for €595 million to restructure their debt they put 90% of the television right as a guarantee. Using 10% they had left, they now have received the permission of Goldman Sachs to loan another 15%. As a result Barcelona have amortised €100 million of the credit that they had with Goldman Sachs.
Not enough to register players
Barcelona will need to activate a third lever before La Liga begins to be able to register their new signings as well as renewing Sergi Roberto and Ousmane Dembele’s contracts officially to play next season. Because Barcelona have another weight on their back; the salary limit which is overblown – the problem can only be solved with the exit of some players or with an increase of funds. They calculate that Barcelona will need another hundred million euros between one thing or another. Frenkie de Jong departing, for example, generates another €40 million but with the activation of the third lever, this will no longer be essential.
The idea is to sell a percentage of Barça Studios. The board had the permission from their members to sell up to 49% of this business but it will not be necessary to reach that percentage. The idea is that Joan Laporta and the board sell 20% of a line of business which at the moment is actually causing deficits for the club.
